


mistletoe

by harinezumi_kun



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Crack, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-07
Updated: 2011-01-07
Packaged: 2017-11-05 17:40:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/409194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harinezumi_kun/pseuds/harinezumi_kun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>nino needs some help, aiba provides his patented genius assistance, and everyone lives happily ever after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> crack is not my strong suit, apparently, as this just turned into complete fluff by the end :/ originally written for the arashicrackaday christmas contest.

“This is _not_ what I meant when I asked for your help,” Nino grates out, pressing two fingers to the throbbing spot between his eyebrows.

Aiba just grins wider and claps a reassuring hand to Nino’s shoulder. A few small green leaves flutter to the ground with the motion.

“You came to the right man,” he says. “I’ve got this in the bag.”

Nino stares at Aiba for a moment longer before dropping his face into his hands.

“Why,” he asks, “why did I ever say anything to you? What could have _possessed_ me to think you would react like a sane, adult person?”

“You were pretty drunk,” Aiba reminds Nino helpfully, then adjusts his headpiece. 

“It was a rhetorical question,” Nino mutters, but Aiba isn’t listening. He’s marching off towards the dressing room where the other members are waiting, shedding leaves and little white berries as he goes.

“Waitwaitwait, STOP!” Nino scrambles to throw himself in front of Aiba. “Don’t—just don’t. We’ll think of another idea, okay? We can go out for dinner, I’ll even treat—”

“Nino,” Aiba interrupts him. His voice is soft, reassuring, and he takes Nino by the arms to shake him gently. “It’s too late for a new plan—it’s Christmas Eve! That was the whole point, right?”

“Well, I…it—I was drunk,” Nino says weakly. “It doesn’t have to be today—”

“Yes it does!” Aiba insists. “I worked on this suit all night, you know.”

Aiba’s grip tightens just a little, and Nino knows there is no changing his mind.

“Fine. Fine, just…I’m going in first.” Nino begins to stalk off, then turns to shove a finger in Aiba’s face. “And if anyone asks: I don’t know _anything_ about this.”

Aiba’s grin is nearly blinding, and Nino is still blinking the after-image from his vision when he stomps into the dressing room. He glances briefly at Ohno, sprawled out on one of the couches. The older man’s head is lolling over the back of the sofa, his eyes are closed, and there’s a perfect little Nino-sized space next to him.

But Nino makes a determined ninety-degree turn towards the make-up tables, and crams himself into his chair before pulling out his DS. He has just enough time to turn it on and load his game when Aiba comes galloping into the room.

“Ta-da!” he cries, planting his hands on his hips in a triumphant pose.

Ohno raises his head from the couch, Sho and Jun look up from what they’re doing, and Nino continues to stare determinedly at his DS screen.

“What are you supposed to be?” Jun asks, raising an eyebrow.

Aiba throws out his arms, dropping a few more leaves. “Mistletoe Man!”

“Please tell me you didn’t ingest any of that while you were making it,” Sho says worriedly. “Mistletoe can be poisonous, you know.”

Aiba gives Sho a withering look that clearly says “I am a _scientist_ , I did _research_. Of _course_ I know that,” before turning his attention back to the room in general.

“Anyway,” he continues. “Mistletoe Man is here to bring love and happiness to all the citizens of Tokyo—starting with Arashi!” Aiba makes a show of looking around the room, shading his eyes with one hand, before pointing dramatically to Nino. “You there! Are you looking for love?!”

“Nope,” Nino replies, feigning boredom. “I was hoping for a pony for Christmas.”

Aiba’s expression drops only briefly, and then he’s dashing across the room. Maybe it’s all the rustling leaves, or the fact that Nino was concentrating so hard on _not_ looking at Aiba, but his usually quick instincts fail him, and Aiba has snatched the DS away before Nino has a chance to stop him.

“HEY!” Nino bellows, already knowing it’s too late when Aiba runs to the couch and tosses the DS at a bemused Ohno. It lands in Ohno’s lap, and Aiba jumps up onto the couch to stand over the other man, one leg up on the back of the sofa and both arms stretched out over Ohno’s head.

“Come and get it, Nino,” Aiba sing-songs with an excited smile.

Nino is frozen for a moment in indecision. Aiba is still looming over Ohno like some kind of possessed Christmas tree, while Ohno just watches Nino, looking a little confused but mostly sleepy. He’s picked up the DS and is holding it carefully by the edges so as to not accidentally push any buttons. Across the room, Jun and Sho exchange A Look that Nino can’t quite read. For some reason, he finds that extremely frustrating.

Nino doesn’t have to do this. He could just walk over, grab the DS back and refuse to play along. But god only knows what Aiba would do if Nino actually got that close to Ohno, and he just—he doesn’t want it to happen that way.

So he turns around and leaves. He doesn’t exactly storm out—he leaves those kind of dramatics to Jun—but he knows he’s making a bit of a scene. Whatever. Anything to get out of that room, and away from the even bigger, thoroughly ridiculous scene Aiba is making.

What he isn’t counting on is Ohno following him.

“Nino.”

He hears Ohno’s voice before his soft footsteps, and then Ohno reaches out to put a restraining hand on Nino’s shoulder.

“Nino,” Ohno says again when Nino doesn’t turn. Instead, Nino crosses his arms and gives a little shrug that he knows won’t dislodge Ohno’s hand, but he feels like he ought to at least make some token resistance. After a moment, Nino starts walking again and Ohno follows. He leads them down the hallway to a little alcove with a vending machine and a large plastic fern.

As soon as Nino turns, he can tell that Ohno knows. It’s there in the little smile that’s flirting with the corners of Ohno’s mouth, and the way he starts casually backing Nino into the corner like maybe he’s not even aware that he’s doing it. Except he _is_ , Nino can tell, and suddenly he’s feeling relieved and nervous and giddy and terrified all at once.

“Why did Aiba want you to kiss me?” Ohno asks, sounding genuinely curious. He’s close now, not any closer than they usually stand to each other, but now the distance feels electric. 

“It wasn’t—” Nino mutters, looking at Ohno’s shoulder, his left ear, his chin, “he didn’t— _I_ wanted me to kiss you.”

“You kiss me all the time,” Ohno points out.

“Well. Yes. But.” Nino finally manages to meet Ohno’s eyes. “Not _really_.”

The grin Ohno’s been working on finally comes out. “So the plan was mistletoe?”

“It was Aiba’s idea,” Nino says grumpily. One of his hands has come up to fiddle with the buttons on Ohno’s shirt and he doesn’t remember putting it there. “It was stupid.”

“You’re stupid,” Ohno replies. There is no malice in his tone, but Nino furrows his brows in consternation anyway.

“You never needed an excuse,” Ohno continues, and his smile softens. “But if it helps…”

Ohno produces a little sprig of mistletoe that he must have taken off of Aiba before leaving the room. He sets it gently in Nino’s hair where it catches easily.

“Now you’re under the mistletoe,” Ohno finishes, closer now, impossibly closer. Nino can feel his own too-fast breaths echoing back to him. And he means to snark, make some kind of smart retort, really he does, but.

“Yeah,” is all he can manage before Ohno’s lips meet his own.

*

Several breathless minutes later they make their way back to the dressing room to find their bandmates in a tangle of limbs on the floor behind the couch.

“At first we were just trying to get him out of the stupid costume,” Sho says once he’s upright again, shaking a few leaves out of his hair.

Jun is picking a berry out from where it’s gotten stuck in the setting of one of his rings. “We got distracted,” he finishes for Sho, while looking incredibly pleased with himself.

Aiba is still prone on the floor, hands laced over his stomach and giggling contentedly. To Sho’s credit, most of the mistletoe suit _is_ gone.


End file.
